01. Papercut
02. Given Up
03. Rebellion
04. Points of Authority
05. One Step Closer
06. A Line in the Sand
07. From the Inside
08. Runaway
09. Wastelands
10. Castle of Glass
11. Leave Out All the Rest / Shadow of the Day / Iridescent
12. Robot Boy
13. New Divide
14. Breaking the Habit
15. Darker Than Blood
16. Burn It Down
17. Final Masquerade
18. Remember the Name
19. Welcome
20. Numb
21. In the End
22. Faint

Encore:

23. Waiting for the End
24. What I’ve Done
25. Bleed It Out

My 5th Linkin Park show brought me to Berlin. It took place at the “Stadion an der alten Försterei” and was the first concert ever held at this location. I was really excited to see the band again. Especially after receiving a mail on tuesday morning that said I won a Meet & Greet. Needless to say I was over the moon!

M&G Pass

Hybrid Theory

Chester & me

Me looking at Mike like he was a christmas tree

The day of the show was there and I made my way to the venue. I had difficulties at first to find the right entrance. I found it eventually and waited with a bunch of people for admittance which turned out to be very chaotic. The security staff clearly had no idea how to handle the crowd. Lorenzo from LPU HQ showed up and tried quite successfully to manage the situation. He checked in the LPU members since we had early entry.

There were quite a lot of people with a laminate so the chances of getting a spot in the front were quite low. Having won the m&g I wouldn’t have been able to make it to the first row anyway, so I didn’t bother. I just felt a bit sorry for the other people. After an awful long time of waiting we could finally enter the venue.

I initially looked out for the m&g meeting point where Lorenzo would pick us up to meet the band. But there were still almost 3 hours to go. Fortunately I was able to pass the time with some really lovely people. Special thanks to Jule, Heike and Johannes. You made waiting so much better! We were told to be at the meeting point at 7:40pm sharp. Everyone was there on time and we waited for someone to fetch us.

Lorenzo showed up and after checking everyone in and handing out the m&g passes, we were led downstairs. It was pitch-black down there and we could barely see a thing. We had to wait down there till the m&g for the VIP package holders was over. Time went really slow and we were joking around how we won’t be even able to see the band because we’ll be blinded by the lights or the camera flashes.

Lorenzo came back and led us to the backstage area where we were joined by the band shortly after. The group photo was taken and my heart almost stopped when Chester sat down right in front of me. The meet & greet didn’t take very long, I got my Hybrid Theory signed and I got to hug Chester again. The guys were as lovely as usual but Joe was missing. We were told that there were family issues he had to take care of. He also didn’t do the show. Whatever the matter was, I hope he and his family will be ok.

We left the backstage area and went to the front of stage section where I had a pretty good stage view. Just minutes later we could watch the band going onstage. Everyone went nuts. The show… what can I say… it was a blast. I loved the energy, I loved the setlist, I loved the crowd. Everyone was jumping, screaming, singing. During “In the End” you couldn’t even hear the band because the audience was singing so loudly.

Before admittance some of us were handed white LED balloons that we needed for a flashmob during the show. While the band was playing the ballad medley we were supposed to let them fly when they sing “let it go”. It all went perfectly fine, the band was really touched and it looked amazing. At the end some fans in the first row held up signs that said “Thank You LP”. Here’s a video of the balloons, it wasn’t recorded by me. Thanks to the person who captured this moment!

The show went by much too fast, I enjoyed every minute of it and I wished it would’ve lasted much longer. I’m already looking forward to the next one and I hope they come back real soon.

01. Mashup Intro #2
02. Guilty All The Same
03. Given Up
04. Points Of Authority
05. One Step Closer
06. Blackout
07. Papercut
08. Rebellion
09. Runaway
10. Wasteland
11. Castle Of Glass
12. Leave Out All The Rest / Shadow Of The Day/Iridescent
13. Robot Boy
14. Joe Hahn Solo
15. Burn It Down
16. Waiting For The End
17. Final Masquerade
18. Wretches And Kings / Remember The Name
19. Numb
20. In The End
21. Faint

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22. Lost In The Echo
23. New Divide
25. Crawling
26. Until It’s Gone
27. What I’ve Done
28. Bleed It Out

My 4th show of The Hunting Party Tour and unfortunately my last. I’m gonna miss these guys. This time I decided to use my LPU XIII Laminate to get early entry. So I queued up with plenty of other members by the LPU sign. At about 5:15 pm they started to let us in. We received our wristbands and after a short period of waiting they would lead us inside the arena. I managed to get a spot at the runway. Excellent!

Some security guy asked me if I was ok every 30 minutes. Very nice. I was ok, for now… General admission started and soon I found myself inside a huge crowd. But I was still fine. Time went by very slowly… as usually while waiting for a show to begin. Sometimes I feel as soon as you get inside a venue you are in another dimension where every minute lasts at least 2 times as long. Of Mice & Men started their set at 7:30 pm and the crowd began to move. Still nothing to worry about although some girl fainted and had to be carried out.

At 8:30 my last Linkin Park show of this tour finally started. I was happy and sad at the same time. The intro started and the people around me went mental. There was a lot of jumping and pushing around me but it was still ok. Since I was standing at the runway, Mike and Chester walked by a lot. Everytime they came anywhere near us the guys behind me started pushing me against the barriers and even tried to push my head down so they could reach out to Mike and Chester. I was unable to move and it hurt like hell. If I ever meet these guys again I swear I will beat the shit out of them. I’ve been to a lot of gigs in my life. I know that there’s a lot of pushing and jumping and things can get really uncomfortable. But these guys were just a bunch of reckless assholes.

I still managed to stay at my spot and even to touch Chester. Some unlucky ones had to be pulled out because they fainted or were about to pass out. Maybe I’m just getting too old for this. I don’t know. It’s just really hard to enjoy a great show when the people behind you are trying to crush you to death.

The band did a great job as usual and clearly enjoyed playing. I was surprised there was no flag on Mike’s keyboard this time. For the encore someone attached an English flag with Mike’s face on it. Don’t know where that one came from. Anyway, it was a great show with the same set as in Vienna. I will certainly miss Linkin Park and hope they’ll be back touring Europe soon. I will definitely go and see them again. Maybe I’ll choose a different spot in the arena next time…

01. Mashup Intro #2
02. Guilty All The Same
03. Given Up
04. Points Of Authority
05. One Step Closer
06. Blackout
07. Papercut
08. Rebellion
09. Runaway
10. Wasteland
11. Castle Of Glass
12. Leave Out All The Rest / Shadow Of The Day/Iridescent
13. Robot Boy
14. Joe Hahn Solo
15. Burn It Down
16. Waiting For The End
17. Final Masquerade
18. Wretches And Kings / Remember The Name
19. Numb
20. In The End
21. Faint

————————————————————————–

22. Lost In The Echo
23. New Divide
25. Crawling
26. Until It’s Gone
27. What I’ve Done
28. Bleed It Out

After my great Meet & Greet experience in Munich I made my way to the central station to take the train to Vienna. Having used busses during the Depeche Mode tour I chose the train this time because the departure times were much more convenient. So I ended up on the Railjet, aka “Failjet” or for German speakers: ”Quäljet”. It is by far the most uncomfortable train I’ve ever been on.

After a 4 hour drive in hell I finally arrived in Vienna. Special thanks to Nina and Ben for providing me with food and shelter and taking really good care of me. Having some catching up to do with my friends I showed up at the venue quite late so I missed “Of Mice & Men”.

I took my seat and waited for the show to start. Lights went off and the crowd started screaming. The set was slightly different this time. The audience including me liked the show a lot. This was my third Linkin Park show (if you don’t count Download Festival) and the band always delivers a great and energetic performance at a very high quality level. So far I never went home disappointed and I never got bored.

These guys are doing a great job and their interaction with the fans is just outstanding. I could watch Chester handing a bottle of water to some thirsty guys in the crowd. Really nice. I’ve been to quite some concerts of some other bands and it’s not often that a crowd goes crazy like this and a band is that caring. I love to watch them and to get in touch with the other fans. I even met some fellow LPU members I hung out with on Thursday which was great.

Now I’m in Manchester waiting for Saturday which will be the last Linkin Park show I will attend. I would love to do more but my budget says no. I’m staying with my friend Marion here who made an awesome Linkin Park cake for me!

01. Mashup Intro #2
02. Guilty All The Same
03. Given Up
04. With You
05. One Step Closer
06. Blackout
07. Papercut
08. Rebellion
09. Runaway
10. Wasteland
11. Castle Of Glass
12. Leave Out All The Rest / Shadow Of The Day/Iridescent
13. Robot Boy
14. Joe Hahn Solo
15. Numb
16. Waiting For The End
17. Final Masquerade
18. Wretches And Kings / Remember The Name
19. Dirt Off Your Shoulder / Lying From You
20. Somewhere I Belong
21. In The End
22. Faint

————————————————————————–

23. Burn It Down
24. Lost In The Echo
25. New Divide
26. Until It’s Gone
27. What I’ve Done
28. Bleed It Out

One of the greatest days in my life started at around 12pm at the Hardrock Café Munich. Since this was my first LPU MeetUp I wasn’t sure what to expect. We were a bunch of 25 people and the guys at the location had reserved a separate room for us and offered us a menue for 15€. Thanks to the staff at Hardrock Café and to LPU for organizing these events and giving us the chance to connect with other fans! One girl brought a German flag for us all to sign which was meant to be put at Mike Shinoda’s keyboard for the show. And that’s where it ended up.

Though I am a very shy person (yes, I really am!) I had no problems to find company. A few of us teamed up and decided to go to the venue together. Some of us including me had a “will call” ticket. We were supposed to collect our tickets at the box office but nobody seemed to know where that was. So we walked around the Olympic Hall to find the LPU Early Entry meeting point hoping we might get some information there. Some security lady told us to wait right there and we would get our tickets later on.

Having a Meet & Greet I was very excited and nervous. We had to wait outside for about 2 hrs until they let us in. We got our tickets, our Meet & Greet laminate, a poster and some other merchandise items. They had reserved a small room backstage for us with a small buffet and some beverages. We could leave our belongings in there and check out the venue and the merchandise. Lorenzo from LPU HQ told us to be back at 7pm sharp to meet the band.

After walking around for some time and doing stupid selfies we got back to our room where we were told that there will be a delay of 30 minutes. Apparently there was a fire in the subway and some people who won a Meet & Greet were stuck. So they decided to delay the whole thing to give everyone the opportunity to meet Linkin Park. Very nice move.

Having a little more time we went for a walk and a smoke again. The smoking area was next to the main entrance where we could watch a girl almost having a breakdown. The security staff had told her the M&G already took place. We overheard this and went there to tell her the whole thing got delayed because of the subway incident. God, she was happy!

We went back to our area and Justin came in to set up the camera equipment and to take some group shots. After that Lorenzo came to tell us there would be another delay – of two seconds. Muhahaha! At first I wanted my Hybrid Theory album to be signed but then I chose the poster so I could put it in a frame for everyone to see. We kept waiting for the band to show up. Everytime someone walked by my heart stopped.

First one to enter was Joe Hahn and everyone started screaming. He looked kind of shocked and pretended to leave the room backwards. Then Mike stuck his head through the door. Again screaming. He went out and in again and everytime his head showed: screams. Mike and Joe started signing our stuff. Mike tapped on my hat, said: “I like that!” and smiled at me. I couldn’t make a single sound. All I could do was smile like an idiot. The rest of the band came in and they shot the group photo.

After that we were asked to go to the walls of the room so the guys could go along, sign our stuff and talk to us. Phoenix asked me if I was fine and again I couldn’t answer. I was basically braindead. The girl next to me approached Brad and asked him if she could go on stage with him. He was signing my poster and we shared some irritated looks.

Chester was still at the other side of the room because he took a lot of time to talk to each and everyone. Very sweet. While I was watching him I thought of what I wanted to say to and practised my line over and over in my head, just to make sure I could get it out properly. And I did! I told him I was at Download Festival where they performed Hybrid Theory and that it was just awesome. He said: “Yeah, awesome!” and high-fived me. I asked him if I might give him a hug and he just hugged me. It was so amazing and so unreal. He is such a sweet guy… incredible. Because of the delay everyone was a bit in a hurry and the whole thing didn’t take long.

Still totally overwhelmed and smiling from ear to ear I went to the arena to get my seat. The show started not long after and it was just great. It was loud, it was energetic and the Munich audience went crazy. And I was on cloud no. 9 anyway.

They played the same set as in Zurich which didn’t bother me because there are a lot of my favourites on it. I had a great time, I met awesome people and the show was fantastic. What more could I ask for? See you in Vienna!

01. Mashup Intro #2
02. Guilty All The Same
03. Given Up
04. With You
05. One Step Closer
06. Blackout
07. Papercut
08. Rebellion
09. Runaway
10. Wasteland
11. Castle Of Glass
12. Leave Out All The Rest / Shadow Of The Day/Iridescent
13. Robot Boy
14. Joe Hahn Solo
15. Numb
16. Waiting For The End
17. Final Masquerade
18. Wretches And Kings / Remember The Name
19. Dirt Off Your Shoulder / Lying From You
20. Somewhere I Belong
21. In The End
22. Faint

————————————————————————–

23. Burn It Down
24. Lost In The Echo
25. New Divide
26. Until It’s Gone
27. What I’ve Done
28. Bleed It Out

After 4 months of waiting the day of the show in Zurich was finally there. I chose a seating ticket this time so I wouldn’t have to show up early. The ticket said the show would start at 8pm. The venue’s official website said 7:30pm. Well, the website was right.

I was very excited to see a Linkin Park Show. I saw them headlining Download Festival this year where they performed “Hybrid Theory” in it’s entirety. It was really awesome. The atmosphere, the energy, the crowd… I still remember buying the album like 13 years ago. I was living in Spain back then and it was a pretty hard time for me. I remember sitting in a cab crying while “In The End” was on the radio. The cab driver tried to cheer me up and we discussed this new band: Linkin Park…

Although they kind of accompanied me and my life throughout the years, I somehow never got to go to one of their shows. Seeing them at Download brought back so many memories and they totally won me over. I was determined to get tickets for their next tour. And that’s what I did.

I arrived at the venue and took my seat which was really close to the stage. The lights went off and the show started. Support act are Of Mice And Men for this tour. I liked their set a lot and I’m sure I’ll check out more of their music soon. The people in the pit seemed to like them, too. There was some bouncing and moshing going on. But of course we were all waiting for Linkin Park to enter the stage.

I had a pretty good view to the backstage area so I could see what was going on there and I spotted the band on their way. Lights went off again and the intro started followed by “Guilty All The Same”. The people in the pit were very loud and active. The seated audience stayed on their seats but knowing the audience in Zurich that was pretty much what I expected. When “Castle Of Glass” started Mike and Chester requested the audience to get off their seats which – to my surprise – they did. The people in my section kept standing for the rest of the show. I could even watch a mosh pit forming in the crowd. A mosh pit in Zurich! Now I can officially say I’ve seen everything…

During “Robot Boy” and the Joe Hahn Solo Chester left the stage. I thought he was taking a break. No, he didn’t. He was doing push-ups. Impressive. After all that running, jumping and screaming I would probably drop dead. He was doing push-ups. Oooooookay… By the way it’s nice to see how much the guys interact with the audience. Being mostly to Depeche Mode Shows I wasn’t used to that. They shake hands, they’ll let you touch them… Even when he was backstage Chester waved at us and was sort of visible and still part of the show somehow. Great, just great.

I really enjoyed my first Linkin Park Show ever (if you don’t count Download Festival) and it was a great setlist. Although I hope to hear more songs from “The Hunting Party”. “Mark The Graves” would be nice or “Keys To The Kingdom”. Well, there’s still Munich, Vienna and Manchester…